Quotes
“Actors do like watching girls parade down the runway for some reason.”
“All of a sudden I was living what is perceived to be the model life. It was just full-on, 24 hours a day. It was work all the time. And there's always a party to go to.”
“All of a sudden to get all of this attention, and to be away from home and working all the time was hard. I was on planes all the time. I didn't see my friends. I cried a lot. It was quite terrifying.”
“Americans are really obsessed with their teeth being white and straight, aren't they? I saw this little girl the other day with one of those whole head braces. Elastic all the way around! How traumatizing for a child to have to wear one of those! You look like a monster.”
“Calvin was very clever. We did the pictures and made the commercial, and that really worked.”
“Even if I wore a hat and a wig, you can always tell it's me.”
“Everyone's projecting onto you, or you feel like everyone is judging you. I feel like I'm being judged a lot of the time. You become really self-conscious.”
“Going to the gym wouldn't be on my list of favorite things to do.”
“I am not a fashion freak!”
“I am so romantic about Gypsies. They're not allowed to do anything until they get married. So they all get married really young, at sixteen.”
“I can do a good roast with my eyes closed. I'm amazing with gravy. That's my speciality; even other people ask me to do gravy at their house. I'm very proud of my gravy.”
“I cut up loads. I always want everything shorter, shorter, shorter.”
“I definitely feel more comfortable in my own skin since turning 40.”
“I didn't realize it. It looks like my career happened overnight, but it didn't. I was basically living on my own from when I was 17 on.”
“I didn't really have a mentor, but I have always definitely been inspired by the '70s - the Stones, Patti Smith, Anita Pallenberg.”
“I don't like doing pictures as myself. I like to be made into someone else.”
“I don't really go to clubs anymore. I'm actually quite settled. Living in Highgate with my dog and my husband and my daughter! I'm not a hell-raiser. But don't burst the bubble. Behind closed doors, for sure, I'm a hell-raiser.”
“I don't think my daughter wants to see me on the toilet. Lila has seen me nude.”
“I edit things down, and I've got a massive dressing room in the country, and so all the things I'm not going to wear but don't want to get rid of go there. And all the stuff I want to get rid of goes to Oxfam.”
“I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts. It didn't feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn't like it.”
“I had tried to get focused on other things. But I always ended up back in the same place, and it wasn't making me happy. I needed to get the focus back.”
“I hate being interviewed. I'm like, 'Aaaarrgghh!' I don't like talking about myself.”
“I hate dentists. That's why my tooth fell out. I was in the middle of a root canal and wouldn't go back, so it just dropped out when I was in the middle of Fifth Avenue.”
“I have a dress-up chest at home. I love to create this fantasy kind of thing.”
“I have made some of the best friends that I've got in this business.”
“I have met almost everyone I've wanted to meet.”
“I kind of lost interest in school. I was never really that interested anyway. I was never academic. I didn't really go to school as much as I should have.”
“I like creating images.”
“I lived in New York for seven years, although I was always in denial about it. Even though I had an apartment there, I always pretended I was just visiting. I do love New York. But I'm a Londoner at heart.”
“I love the Royal Family. The Queen, she's fabulous.”
“I love the Sixties with Julie Christie and Jane Birkin - those natural English beauties. That's the look that is most me, when I wore the tight-to-the knee dresses. I don't think I bleached my hair until I was 20. I like experimenting for big occasions, though. You've always got to do a bit of a number for the birthday!”
“I make jam, and oh my God, it is so delicious.”
“I own a Hangman jumper, which looks like a scarf, but that's what it's called. It cost a fortune, but it was worth it.”
“I really work. I like feeling that I've nailed it, and we've got the picture.”
“I remember taking my makeup off at a Saint Laurent shoot, and I was dragging it across my eye. The makeup artist was like, 'Don't do that to your skin! Don't pull it like that!' And I'm like, 'Really?'”
“I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird. But they were like, 'If you don't do it, then we're not going to book you again.' So I'd lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it. I never felt very comfortable about it. There's a lot of boobs. I hated my boobs! Because I was flat-chested.”
“I started going back and forth, New York, London, New York, London. I wasn't looking back at all. I was doing tons of jobs. Working, working, working, working.”
“I think women are really good at multitasking. Men just cannot do it.”
“I thought it was quite vain to say, I want to be a model.”
“I want to apologize to all of the people I have let down because of my behavior which has reflected badly on my family, friends, co-workers, business associates and others.”
“I was 14 when I started modeling. At the end of that first day my mum said, If you want to do this, you're on your own because I'm not traipsing around London ever again like that. It's a nightmare.”
“I was a scapegoat. The media had to put responsibility on somebody, and I was chosen. They felt free to say that because someone was thin they were anorexic, which is ridiculous.”
“I was amazed at the support that I got when I was in there. And when I came out people knew that I was back on track. I was interested in working again.”
“I was definitely living fast. I was working, traveling a lot, playing. I didn't stop. It all became unbalanced.”
“I was doing shows and flying economy, and nobody ever fed me. Or I'd be staying in hotels so cheap that by the time I'd get in, there wasn't any room service. I didn't eat for a long time. Not on purpose. You'd be on shoots with bad food or get on a plane, and the food would be so disgusting you couldn't eat it.”
“I was doing things that weren't good for me. So I checked into the Churchill Priory clinic. It was the best thing I've done for ages.”
“I was lucky to be with Johnny... he taught me a lot about fame.”
“I was never anorexic, so I was never that skinny. I was never bony-bony. But I remember thinking, I don't want to be this skinny.”
“I was really nervous, intimidated by the whole thing-all the people and all the buzzing, and all the sitting around waiting. I felt really small in this huge place.”
“I was really, really star-struck when I met Prince.”
“I wasn't the prettiest girl in class. No breasts, short legs, gangly teeth. I didn't think I was model material, that's for sure.”
“I worked with Herb Ritts on the Marky Mark shoot, and then Steven Meisel, and then they'd start sending limos for me, and I was like, 'That is so embarrassing. I'm not getting in a stretch limo by myself to go to a shoot.' That whole New York thing of, 'You are fabulous! Turn up to a Meisel shoot in a limo and you're fabulous!'”
“I would have wanted to be a rock star, a lead singer, if I wasn't a model. I'd go touring in a bus with my band. In my next life, that's the plan.”
“I would say I'm self-taught, but Corinne Day made me less conscious of myself. I was 15, and she'd make me take off my top, and I'd cry. After five years, you get used to it, and you're not self-conscious anymore.”
“I'd go on the train to castings, changing from my school uniform on the train. I carried on like that for a few years, getting jobs in bits and pieces.”
“If I'm going to work, I put black jeans on, a T-shirt, a shirt, and a jacket.”
“I'll never forget that show season. It was completely mad. I was staying between Christy and Naomi's rooms and it was all limos and the Ritz Hotel and all that kind of business.”
“I'm definitely low maintenance, but I do have a lot of massages, and I have this girl who comes to my house to do my nails. My friends will come over ,and we'll all get our nails done or have waxes.”
“I'm not really a fashion designer. I just love clothes. I've never been to design school. I can't sketch. I can't cut patterns and things. I can shorten things. I can make a dress out of a scarf.”
“In my next life, I'm going to be a rock star. I was a ballerina in my last life.”
“It is quite amazing what I didn't feel after a while. I didn't really want to feel things.”
“It sounds really corny but I think that if you're beautiful inside it shows on the outside, for sure.”
“It was kind of boring for me to have to eat. I would know that I had to, and I would.”
“It's a sin to be tired.”
“It's all about the blanket. Blanket, pillow, and red wine. You should always be asleep on a plane.”
“I've got bowlegs, so if I do a midcalf look, I look bandy.”
“I've got lots of friends who are musicians, so if they ask me to do things, I'll go and do it for a laugh. I don't want to be a pop star or anything like that.”
“I've met Bob Dylan. We did one of those non-handshake handshakes. I was with all guys, and he shook hands with all of them, and then they said, 'And this is Kate,' and I put my hand out, and he didn't put his out. And then I took my hand away, and he put his out. It was one of those. We finally did shake. And then I fainted!”
“I've met lots of interesting people, but Lucian Freud is the one who sticks out because I spent so much time with him. He taught me discipline, which I hadn't been taught properly before. If I was, like, two seconds, late, he would kick off. Once, I was three minutes late, and he went absolutely berserk.”
“Jam! I love my jam. I've just had a batch of it come through, I've been making it.”
“Just to go into a shop without getting stared at would be nice. I mean, I don't walk around like, 'Oh, I'm trying to be famous' - I try to lead as normal a life as possible - but sometimes it's annoying. It's fine; it's not a massive problem, but sometimes it's just a bit uncomfortable.”
“Lila can't be a model until she's at least 21. She is already a mini-me - it is scary. She already has her own beauty kit.”
“Lipstick is iconic. It's the one product that marks out an era, and a certain lip colour can define a season. It makes me feel more 'done'. I wear a beige lip in the day, but red when I'm going somewhere - it makes that transition from day to night. I just slick it on; I don't bother with lipliner.”
“Modeling can be a bit brain damaging. Starting my own brand was what I needed to do. I only model if there are such good jobs that you don't want to say no to. All that dressing up makes me say, 'What do I want to wear?' and, 'What do I want to do with Topshop?' It all kind of leads into the other things.”
“Modeling is a job. Even my mum doesn't believe that I do work hard.”
“My daughter, Lila, is my style critic. She'll say, 'No, Mummy, you can't wear that.' She's very good. I do trust her instinct.”
“My daughter Lila loves the smell of gasoline - she always says, 'Mummy, keep the door open,' when I'm filling up the car. I've heard it is one of the most preferred scents in the world - maybe that's something to study for my next fragrance!”
“My signature jam is damson or quince, and it's called 'Kate's Sweet and Sticky'. Basically, I'm a domestic goddess.”
“No phone, a movie, a glass of wine, and some salad. Perfect!”
“Nobody took you out for lunch when I started. Carla Bruni took me out for lunch once. She was really nice. Otherwise, you don't get fed.”
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
“Now I can walk into a room full of people I don't know and do my job. That's quite a massive thing to learn, I think.”
“Now I'm being blamed not only for anorexia but for lung cancer. - On being a social smoker.”
“Once I was walking from The Mercer in New York - because otherwise I don't walk anywhere - and this woman paparazzo who was following me fell over a fire hydrant and her whole tooth went through her lip. I leant over her, saying, 'Are you all right?' and she was still taking pictures.”
“People don't hear me talk. They don't expect me to.”
“People forget I go to work. They forget that the Coleridge house was bought and paid for by the daughter of a travel agent and a barmaid from what the actor Richard Burton once described as the nightmarish 'featureless suburb' of Croydon.”
“People that don't know me get 'Mossed'. It means, I was gonna go home, but then I just got led astray. In the best possible way, of course. I mean, it's always fun, and a good time.”
“People think your success is just a matter of having a pretty face. But it's easy to be chewed up and spat out. You've got to stay ahead of the game to be able to stay in it.”
“That Lana Del Rey is quite cute, isn't she? I quite like her.”
“The first time I went to Johnny Depp's house in LA is when I realized what I was getting myself into. I knew he was famous, but I didn't really know what that entailed.”
“The first time I went to New York, I went with my first boyfriend, Clark. His dad had just bought an apartment in New York, and my dad dropped us off, and we were there for a week on our own. I must have been 15 or 16. I remember I went to Harlem and bought a goose jacket. That was the hip, hot thing.”
“Then finally I said, 'Okay, well, I want to know all the details. I want creative input. I want to be consulted. I want to know what they're doing and who's involved. And I want to see the space.' So they took me to see it, and then I realized it was major! All these red flags on the Rue de Rivoli with my name on them right by the Louvre!”
“There are lots of women I look up to, but mentors are someone you talk to and not just admire. A lot of my friends that I trust are my mentors.”
“There was a point when it all really took off and got quite overwhelming, even though I didn't realize it.”
“There's always a dinner to go to. There're always loads of people around. I was having fun working with my friends. For a while it all just kind of rolled together in a great way.”
“There's nobody that's ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said, 'What do I do?' he'd tell me. And that's what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust.”
“Topshop is the only brand I've ever collaborated with on a fashion collection.”
“Well, I met Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan in the space of 15 minutes. Frank Sinatra kissed me on the lips. He kissed me on the lips. And then he gave me a filterless cigarette. And then I met Bob Dylan. I came off all lightheaded and had to go sit on his dressing-room steps.”
“What people say isn't going to stop me. I have to do things for myself.”
“When people see an actor speak, they think they know him or her, whereas I'm just a face or a body to them.”
“When you're shooting you go to references in your mind. You think about how you should stand in these particular clothes, or how you should move. You think about the different characters you're playing, really.”
“Yeah, I like clothes, but I hardly ever go shopping. Hardly ever!”
“You can be a pretty face, but if you're not a nice person, it just doesn't work. I'm not traditionally a beauty, but apparently people think I'm all right. If you're a nice person, it definitely helps.”
“You go to a show, and there's no food at all, so if you're doing shows back to back, you can forget eating. I remember standing up in the bath one day, and there was a mirror in front of me, and I was so thin! I hated it. I never liked being that skinny.”